The Wilson holds a large body of archive material relating to the Arts and Crafts Movement. As the museum has developed its collection of furniture, metalwork, ceramics etc., an archive collection relating to their designers and makers has grown up alongside it. The archives complement the objects and offer unique insights into the lives and working processes of the designers and makers.
You can find out about our large archive and library of Private Press Movement material, the Emery Walker Library, here.
If you are interested in making an enquiry about the collections, booking a research visit or ordering images, please go to Questions for the Collections Team.
Design of a cabinet in black ebony and English walnut by Ernest Gimson
The Wilson holds over 2000 designs and drawings of furniture and metalwork by Ernest Gimson, which, alongside letters, sketchbooks and his personal photograph collection were acquired by the Librarian Curator Daniel Herdman at the time of the death of Gimson’s widow, Emily, in 1941. The archive was literally saved from the bonfire! There are also more than 300 designs by Sidney Barnsley, as well as several by his son Edward, and photographs from the Barnsley family from about 1895 to 1910. Other designers from their circle are also represented, including two rare furniture designs by Peter Waals, whose workshop and most of his drawings were destroyed in a fore shortly after his death in 1937. The Wilson also holds record photographs of his work. Other designers and architects featured are Norman Jewson, Alfred and Norman Bucknell, Harry Davoll, Detmar Blow, Robert Weir Schultz, Edward Prior and John Paul Cooper.
C R Ashbee’s Essex House Press is one of the few private presses not represented in the Emery Walker’s library, but the museum holds a number of books by the press, including the Prayer Book of King Edward VII, 1903, and proof sheets for the Essex House Song Book, 1903-5. A set of photographs by Guild member Arthur Cameron, a metalwork, give a glimpse into the social life of the Guild in Chipping Campden, and the museum also possesses 37 samples, mainly stencil, used for inlaid designs on furniture.
The museum holds three photograph albums of Russell & Sons and Gordon Russell Ltd. furniture taken by Dennis Moss of Cirencester, as well as catalogues and a collection of printed ephemera from the 1920s to 1940s.
Paul Woodroffe was a stained glass designer and book illustrator who lived at Westington, Chipping Campden from 1904 to 1934. The Wilson holds six bound volumes containing 122 original watercolour designs and 273 photographs and reproductions, cataloguing his output from 1900 to 1945, and ranging from designs for Gloucestershire homes and churches to his designs for St Patrick’s cathedral, New York.
Alec Miller became an apprentice woodcarver aged 12 in Glasgow. He joined Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in 1902, and continued working in Chipping Campden until 1938. He spent the last two decades of his life in the USA working as a sculptor and lecturer. The Wilson holds his collection of working references, including books and folders of illustrations and magazine articles.
Barron and Larcher settled in Painswick in 1930, and stayed there for the rest of their lives to produce their hand-block printed textiles. As well as a number of finished pieces, the museum holds a study collection of 44 samples of their hand-block printed fabrics.
This is the working library of BG (Max) Burroughs (1913-1986) who combined craft skills with his knowledge and enthusiasm for the Arts and Crafts Movement. The collection includes private press books, pamphlets and catalogues by many of the main designers in the Movement, photographs of work, as well as articles by Burroughs and others
A series of catalogues dating from the 1920s and 30s of exhibitions put on by the art gallery and museum and later the Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen. The museum holds three volumes of photographs by FC Scorey of the 1951 exhibition in Montpellier Rotunda of Cotswold craft, as well as information on the Guild and its members, including a new acquisition of archival material by weaver Theo Moorman.
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Carnac designed by Barron and Larcher, 1931. Pyrolignite of iron on linen.
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Photography by FC Storey of the 1951 Cotswold Craftsmanship exhibition at the Montpellier Rotunda, Cheltenham.
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Design of a cabinet in black ebony and English walnut by Ernest Gimson
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A 1920s catalogue produced by Russell & Sons.
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Detail of page from The Sea King’s Daughter and Other Poems by Amy Mark, 1895.
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Members of the Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Campden, about 1902.
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Stained glass window design by Paul Woodroffe.
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